My last breath
by Nadin4400
Summary: AU. Angst, drama. There is only one thing Alaric can do to save Jenna, and he takes the matters into his own hands when there is no hope left. Set during 2x21. WARNING: Character death. One-shot


**Title**: My last breath

**Summary**: there is only one way to save Jenna from the sacrifice, and no time for hesitation

**Characters**: Jenna, Alaric, mentions of the others

**Spoilers**: Throughout S1/S2, mainly 2x21

**Timeline**: The story starts in the middle of 2x21, and takes an AU turn

**Disclaimer**: No mine, never were, never will be.

**Author's Note**: I had no idea where it came from. Maybe I was bored. Maybe I am still looking for a loophole that can alter the reality. Maybe I still want to believe that 2x21 never happened and my whole life is a dream that I will wake up from eventually. Or maybe it was the fog outside my window that demanded for some darkness and angst to be released.

I never wanted smth like that to happen on the show, but I kind of half expected such turn of events.

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><p>The decision was easy and simple, and once Alaric made it, he knew it was the right one as well. With his heart hammering so fast that he was feeling dizzy, he prayed that it wasn't too late, that they still had some time. A few minutes were all he needed. Just a few.<p>

"Damon!" He all but smacked his hand on the invisible wall that kept him inside of the house, desperate to be heard, and fearing that the vampire would ignore him – like on many other occasions – and simply move on with Bonnie and Elijah seeing as how they had a business to deal with, a sacrifice to stop and Elena to save.

_And Jenna_.

Jenna…

His heart leaped again, and plummeted down to settle sickeningly in the pit of his stomach. How could he be such an idiot? How could he leave her alone after everything that had happened? He had promised to himself he would keep her safe no matter what. How could he break this promise?

It felt unreal, and deep inside Alaric begged and prayed to wake up and find out that it was nothing but a bad dream. He wanted to open his eyes, squint in the morning sunlight, roll over and find Jenna sleeping next to him, her hand tucked under her cheek and her honey hair scattered all over the pillow.

But it wasn't happening. And he knew it never would. Instead, he was stuck in the "house of a hundred dead witches" – Damon's wording, not his – with the passed out Jeremy and determined John who was seemingly okay with the plan to keep the humans out of the rescue party. Then again, he didn't have the woman he loved sentenced to death. Which did not change the fact that Alaric wanted to smack his face into the wall for basically being the root of the trouble.

Yet, irritation aside, it wasn't on top of his priority list right now. Jenna was.

Much to his relief, Damon stopped and turned. Was it about mere curiosity of the fact that Alaric's voice carried all desperation of the world he couldn't say. Not that it mattered.

"You're not going," Damon said with some finality that was bound to put an end to the conversation.

"Can you please listen to me?" Alaric all but begged breathlessly, his eyes darting from Damon to Bonnie to Elijah to Damon again.

"We don't have time for it, Ric," the vampire shook his head. "We need to take Klaus down before broke the curse." _Before he killed everyone_ went unsaid.

"My point exactly!" Alaric dropped his hands down and let them hang loosely by his sides, feeling tired and world weary by the second. Too tired to keep fighting, too tired to even take one breath after another, as if the weight of the entire universe suddenly fell upon his shoulders. "I need you… I need you to listen to me." He paused when something like recognition flashed across Damon's face. "I can't stay here. I can't let anything happen to her. I can't let Jenna die." He gave another quick look to Bonnie and Elijah that seemed to be listening intensely, too. Alaric could almost hear them thinking, trying to figure out what he was trying to say. "Just… there is only thing I can do, and I need you to help me with it." His voice cracked a little. "Please, Damon."

Damon's face darkened when the truth sunk in and he tensed minutely, the line of his shoulders going completely stiff. There was understanding in him, understanding and acceptance.

There was time when Alaric wondered how he and the vampire that turned his wife and thus ruined his marriage ended being… friends? He doubted it was the word. Not exactly. Companionship was closer, he thought. Seeing the things in the same way when others comprehended them differently. Both of them willing to fight for what they thought was right until the end. He was grateful for it now, for he knew instantly that Damon was on the same page with him. He could disapprove and question his actions, his reasons. But he understood. And he was not the one to make the decision for Alaric or take that right away from him. As far as the vampire's respect went, Alaric could count on him in that.

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><p>He was a skeptic by nature. Life had taught Alaric to believe in what he could see and touch, in what could be proved and documented. In what everyone else believed because it was impossible not to.<p>

Turning into a vampire was none of those things.

The blood felt warm and sticky in his mouth when he took a few huge gulps of it from Damon's slit open wrist, fighting to forget what it was and trying not to feel the taste of it, for he knew he would get sick if he did. It settled heavily in his stomach, the metallic aftertaste in his mouth making him feel nauseous. His heartbeat accelerated. _This is it_, he thought. Once it was over, there would be no way back, nothing would ever be same. And if he survived the night, he would have to deal with the consequences of his decision for the rest of eternity.

He didn't care.

All he knew was that he had to take Jenna's place. Between her life and his, his was the one he was willing to lose.

Another breath. Maybe the last one. He started to turn slowly… and then everything went black.

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><p>It was an amazing feeling. Once the transition was over, he felt free. Everything was so big and bright and magnificent that for a moment Alaric knew exactly why someone would want to give up on their humanity and live forever.<p>

He did not ponder it, however, because the next thing he knew was that they were running through the woods, the smell of earth and leaves and trees so intoxicating it was making his head somewhat foggy and he didn't know whether he should have tried to block it out or sip in every ounce of it. It felt like he was sleeping for years and now he finally woke up. His mind was focused though, the image of Jenna from the last time he saw her etched into it. For once, he was feeling powerful to win the world, and the plan that was nothing but clinging to hope had finally started making sense. He started to believe they could actually do it.

They were fast – so damn fast! – but he didn't trip once, easily keeping up with Damon and Elijah. Either because his vampire instincts were natural like that, or because he had a purpose and no right to fail. No matter what.

She was sitting in the ring of fire when they arrived, skidding to a half at the edge of the clearing to wait for Bonnie to catch up with them. Elena was in another one, and even though Alaric's eyes were fixed solely on Jenna, he didn't miss Damon going completely rigid by his side, his knuckles cracked a little when he balled his hands into fists. Jules was lying in the middle of what must have been the third ring although the circle of black, burnt down grass was the only thing to remind them of that, her eyes staring sightlessly into the inky sky.

The dark-haired girl chanting to the right from them must have been the witch. Klaus was standing beside her, both of them too absorbed in the process to pay attention to anything else around them. There was a sense of power to them, certainty that they were invincible.

They were quiet, and Alaric knew it. Quiet enough for Klaus not to notice them at first.

Jenna did.

Sitting right across from him, she snapped her head up all of a sudden, her eyes going wide with horror as the recognition settled in. She looked scared and confused, and everything inside of Alaric coiled at the sight of her. It was a miracle he didn't lurch at Klaus this very moment for doing this to her. Hell, for so much as laying his finger on her. He could have probably torn the Original vampire to pieces with his bare hands for that, Alaric thought with dark rage that was boiling and bubbling inside of him, threatening to break through and sweep them all away. It was only knowing that Jenna would be doomed if he died before getting them out of this mess that kept him glued to the spot.

_No_, Jenna mouthed soundlessly and shook her head as if willing him to get the hell away from there until it was too late.

_I love you_, Alaric mouthed back letting a small rueful smile cross his face for a moment, an encouragement he knew meant nothing to her. _I'm sorry_.

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><p>Alaric Saltzman was a skeptic. He had spent his entire life questioning the truths that the others were taking for granted. With his pragmatic mind, history was the obvious choice when it came to looking for a life path. Facts had always been his friends. Exact and linear. And maybe by looking into the past, he would be able to build the right future. He had always believed in that.<p>

These were not his last thoughts. This was not how his life was supposed to end.

Yet, when the wooden stake pierced through his skin and ran into his heart, and his entire life flashed before his mind's eye, all ups and downs, rights and wrongs, he knew he would find peace for his restless soul in the end for his decision was right after all. The peace he knew he wasn't meant for when alive. His father had told him once that it didn't matter how long one lived. It was _how_ that counted in the end.

He didn't want this. He didn't want to die, not when he had barely started to live. But if it wasn't for Jenna, he was sure he wouldn't start at all, and he thought he owed her that much. After all, she was the one to make his heart beat again.

Oddly, he didn't feel the pain. He didn't feel anything at all. He did, however, forced himself to turn his head and look at her just one last time. Even Klaus couldn't take that away from him. Jenna's cheeks were wet with tears as she cried silently with her hands clasped around her mouth, her eyes never leaving his form lying on the cold stone, and a pang of guilt shot through Alaric. He hoped he had already stopped being the reason of her sorrow, and as the life was draining out of his body, his only regret was not being able to hold her close for this one time and make her tears go away.

For one reason or the other, time was never on their side.

What took his doubts away was knowing that he would rather die than spend his life without her.

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><p>If someone asked Jenna Sommers when exactly her life went wrong, she wouldn't be able to point the exact moment. Had it been in high school when it occurred to her that homework and assignments were not the most important things in the world, turning her into a free spirit, an eternal teenager at heart. Or later, when she signed up for guardianship without so much as second thought because the very idea of something bad happening to Miranda and Grayson was too absurd and impossible to seriously fear it. Or maybe when Jeremy talked her into going to the Grill after school to grab some pizza, which inevitably led to her waking up next to Alaric every morning months later.<p>

None of it mattered now. What Jenna knew for sure was that she had no regrets, and had she been able to travel back in time, she would probably not change a thing for fear of losing something precious that came along the way with the grief.

Except for one thing, she thought, standing by the nameless grave on a warm late spring afternoon. The sun was warm to her skin and the birds were chirping high in the trees as the soft breeze played with her hair.

She placed her hand on top of a cold marble tombstone not bothering to wipe at the tears that were streaming down her cheeks as she bit into her lower lip to stop herself from screaming in pain. Silver ring with the sky-blue Lapis Lazuli caught sunlight and winked at her. It had been a few weeks, but the horrible truth still hadn't sunk in. She missed him so much that it was ripping her apart, that she was slowly dying on the inside every moment of her existence, the last moment of Alaric's life burned into her mind for eternity.

Slowly, Jenna lowered herself down to the ground and rested her back against the stone as if it could bring her closer to Ric.

Her life had changed more than she ever thought was possible. She was a vampire. She had blood bags from the nearest hospital stashed in the far corner of her fridge and two teenagers she was responsible for. Two teenagers that proved being a lot more capable of taking care of their lives than she ever would be, and the realization left her numb, speechless and scared at some point.

She was a fighter. Always had been. And she knew she would make it through all of this. Eventually, she'd figure out how, and it would get better. She would stop searching for the switch to flip to turn it off. It would become the new kind of normal she'd learn to live with. She had no right to fail. Not now. Alaric had given up his life for hers, and the least she could do was make sure it wasn't in vain.

She hated him for it. She hated him for leaving her when she needed him the most, for all the time they would never have, for words they would never say, and dreams that would never come true.

These were the thoughts, however, saved for the long sleepless nights when she was crying herself to sleep, exhausted and broken, feeling desperate and hopeless and so lost that she was sure she would never find her way to where she belonged.

Here, with Alaric, she learned to block them out, regardless of the tears choking her and a thick lump in her throat Jenna was sure would suffocate her one day. And as she buried her face in her knees, her shoulders shaking slightly, there was only one thing she wasn't able to push out of her head – she knew that she would love him forever. Until her last breath.

**The end **

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><p>Comments, reviews and buckets of tears are very welcome<strong><br>**


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